AMD feels the need for speed, introduces new FX processor

October is 'speed month' at the company

Some interesting happenings are shaping up at AMD, including a new product, price cuts and a suggestion current clock times are about to get blown out of the water.

The semiconductor company recently announced a new member in its famous FX processor family, the FX-4130.

"This is a new product in our FX line," Gary Silcott, client products PR manager for AMD, told TechRadar. "We just started selling it this week."

While the architecture is similar to others in the FX line, Silcott said it's competitively priced at $112 and clocked differently than other FX models.

According to the company's website, the FX-4130 is a four-core CPU clocking slightly below 4GHz in a 125W thermal envelope. The chip - which falls in between AMD's other offers in terms of price - is a solid build processor for home theater PCs, gaming and back-to-school needs.

Slashing dollars

AMD's getting competitive too with price cuts for 15 products, including its first-generation A-Series APUs, a processor the company pioneered.

"There's price adjustments across the FX line as well as the first series of our APUs," Silcott said. "In some cases, there's even a 20 percent cut."

The FX-8150 with Liquid Cooling System, for example, was knocked down from $271 to $251 while the A6 3650 now runs at $77, down from $91.

More price drops on the second-gen APUs are coming down the line too, Silcott said.

The timing is apparently right for a price reduction, hence the generous markdowns. Consumers, he explained, are going to get a good value for their dollar.

"We've got our new products coming out here in the next few weeks, plus these are back-to-school types of systems," he said.

Wait a minute…

Did he say new products?

"We'll be announcing our desktop component for A-Series soon," he said. "That'll be coming out in October. We've also got the next-generation FX in October, too.

"We're calling it 'speed month' for AMD. We have upgrades coming across the board."

Just what those speeds are he wouldn't say.

"The frequencies we'll be hitting, that's the surprise coming in October."